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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Lawmakers Fight Each Other Amid Multiple U.S. Crises; Novavax Vaccine Less Effective Against South African Variant; E.U. Regulator Decides Today on Authorizing AstraZeneca Vaccine; Pioneering Actress Cicely Tyson Dies at 96; Biden Signs Executive Orders to Expand Health Care Coverage. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 29, 2021 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:00:24]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday, January 29th. Happy Friday, 5:00 a.m. exactly in the East.

The enemy is within. The United States faces a raging pandemic, a struggling economy, domestic terrorism, but it's hard for lawmakers to address those problems when they don't trust each other. Speaker Nancy Pelosi says it's hard to keep members safe when some of the members are the problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We will probably need a supplemental for more security for members when the enemy is within the House of Representatives, a threat that members are concerned about in addition to what is happening outside.

We have members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence against other members of Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Hostility between the parties is bad enough but among Republicans it's getting ugly. Many of them more focused on absolving the former president on insurrection than rebuilding a battered company.

CNN's Ryan Nobles reports now from Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Laura and Christine, there is definitely a bit of a civil war happening on Capitol Hill right now between Republicans that voted for the impeachment of President Trump and those who still passionately support the president. At the middle of all of that is the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. He traveled to Florida on Thursday to meet with the former president. The two both issuing a statement saying president Trump is prepared to help Republicans win back the majority in 2022.

The problem though is that there are still a handful of Republicans that aren't in agreement with embracing President Trump and Liz Cheney, who is one of those Republicans that voted to impeach the president, Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman now attacking her. He traveled to her state of Wyoming on Thursday to criticize her and perhaps drum up support for a primary challenger.

Then there's, of course, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia congresswoman, who's run into a great deal of controversy. A CNN report showing she had past social media posts where she called for the execution of Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi, now pushed by Democrats to expel her from the House of Representatives, that's unlikely, but they're also pushing for her to be removed from the House Education Committee. That is more likely.

You're going to see that drum beat only increase next week when Congress, at least the House of Representatives, returns to session -- Laura and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Ryan on Capitol Hill -- thanks, Ryan.

Overnight for the first time, we got a sense of the human toll of the COVID variants. The prediction model predicts 595,000 deaths by May 1st as the most likely scenario. The worst case, it projects nearly 654,000 American deaths by May 1st. By some estimates, that's as many as died on both sides of the civil war.

JARRETT: That means the variants from the U.K., Brazil and South Africa could kill an additional 85,000 people above the previous projections. Anywhere else is like wiping out a major American city like Baltimore or Las Vegas.

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DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE: We are in a race against the variants right now. The faster we're able to reduce overall rates of infection by taking the public health measures, distancing, the faster we're able to vaccinate people, the faster we can turn this pandemic around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Now, the CDC says there's no evidence it can cause severe COVID-19. But early indicators are that it may make the virus more contagious. And that risks overwhelming hospitals, just as caseloads are starting to ease now.

Well, the South African variant of COVID is here. The first confirmed cases of the strain now found in two people in South Carolina. State health officials say neither person has any noteworthy travel history and there's no connection between the two cases suggesting that the variant may already be more widespread than previously known.

This all comes as Novavax announces its coronavirus vaccine is 90 percent effective. However, a separate study in South African where the new variant has been raging for months shows the vaccine was considerably less effective.

CNN's David McKenzie is live for us in Johannesburg.

David, you were at a Johnson & Johnson trial just a few minutes ago. What did you see?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a critical trial, Laura, of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. We expect results of that very soon. That one dose vaccine could be a game changer. But as you said, already some vaccines show that they are not as effective with the South African strain.

[05:05:02]

We've seen an extremely dramatic scientific wave. People are not able to fight off the virus even though they've had it before with an earlier strain. We were at that site, the Johnson & Johnson site. They are monitoring some more than 200 volunteers, checking blood, symptoms if any, making sure people are following all the protocols.

We even went into the pharmacy and saw those precious experimental vaccines in the fridge. This could be, as I said, incredibly important if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is effective. The question is will it work against the south African variant, variants found in Brazil and in the U.K.

One of the big concerns though is if it is, if others are seen to be, is getting vaccines out to places like South Africa, the rest of the African continent. Everybody in the U.S. is potentially safe as variants develop. Take a listen to a nurse I spoke to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REBECCA PHOFA, CLINICAL NURSE: They deserve to have this vaccine. Whether they're involved in the production, whether they're involved in the clinical trial or whatever, I think everybody in this world, if people want the vaccine. The vaccine has to be available for them.

MCKENZIE: If a vaccine doesn't come quickly, what's the impact?

PHOFA: Well, the impact is we worry about the new variant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: And those new variants that have emerged have dominated the infection. I was looking at a study done in this province of South Africa showing how the variant discovered in late November of last year just absolutely took over. Places in Soweto, across the country, in South Africa and other parts of the continent. People who have it with no travel history in the U.S. is very concerning -- Laura. JARRETT: Yeah, it's very concerning, and certainly why these

companies are rushing to try to create boosters to address all of these variants.

All right. David, thanks so much.

ROMANS: European regulators are expected to authorize the vaccine. The E.U. is already upset and Germany says the vaccine may not be safe for some of the most vulnerable people anyway.

CNN's Melissa Bell joins us outside of a plant in Belgium where the AstraZeneca vaccine is produced -- Melissa.

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine, we are waiting to hear what the European medicines agency has to say about the possibility of making this vaccine, the AstraZeneca one, available throughout the E.U. But, of course, as you mentioned, even before we hear about that, fears of the amounts of vaccines that are going to be delivered at a time when Europe is going to vaccinate its population, shortages in the Pfizer vaccine, shortages in the Moderna, that have really seen vaccinations slow in countries like France, Germany and Spain, even before this AstraZeneca vaccine becomes available. That's how badly Europeans needed it.

So, that really helps explain, Christine, as well their anger. Now, what AstraZeneca says the reason they're not able to give out as many to the E.U. as they plan to, is at sites like this one where the AstraZeneca vaccine is produced, what they explain is you get different yields. The cells they use for the vaccine have a relative amount of yield. Some sites and other sites you can see a three-fold difference between those yields.

It is because of that slow production they say at this particular site that there will be a slower rollout in the E.U. Now, the E.U. has made plain that it is not playing any games. It has announced an inspection of the site this week to make sure that AstraZeneca's claims were sure, were true.

It also now, we expect going to announce later today vaccine expert restrictions, to make sure that there are no vaccines leaving the continent, Christine, and heading to countries like the U.K. where there's a shortage here in Europe. Now, to give you an idea how monumental the task is for Europeans, they want to vaccinate 70 percent of this population by the summer. At the moment, there's about 2 percent.

ROMANS: Yeah, a long road here to climb still. Thanks so much for that, Melissa Bell.

JARRETT: This morning fans are mourning the loss of a true icon. Actress Cicely Tyson. Her career span more than six decades, filled with ground breaking performances as she paved the way for generations of black actors who came behind her. She received an Oscar nomination for her breakout role in the 1972 film "Sounder."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, Rebecca. I sort of was expecting you this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I come (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Forty-five years later, an honorary Oscar. All along the way she won three Emmys, and became the oldest person at 88 to win a Tony Award for her 2013 Broadway revival of "The Trip to Bountiful".

[05:10:03]

From "Roots" to "Autobiography of Ms. Jane Pittman", Tyson refused to take roles that weren't realistic portrayals of black women, instead using her career in the words of Oprah to illuminate the humanity of black people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CICELY TYSON, PIONEERING ACTRESS: I made up my mind then that I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress. There were a number of issues that had to do with me as a woman born black and living in a country that did not recognize me as a human being, OK, that I could not afford that country. I wanted to address those issues, and that's why I was steadfast in terms of what I was -- what I was giving to my audiences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: In 2016, Tyson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama who tweeted this tribute last night, saying, in her extraordinary career, Cicely Tyson was one of the rare, award winning actors whose work on the screen was surpassed on the screen only by what she was able to accomplish off of it. She had a heart unlike any other, and for 26 years, she left a mark on the world that few ever will ever match.

Cicely Tyson was 96 years old.

We'll be right back.

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[05:15:50]

JARRETT: President Biden now pushing to expand health care for Americans during this pandemic. He's executive order is designed to reverse the damage he says his predecessors did to the signature health care law.

We get more on all this from CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, good morning, Christine and Laura.

Yesterday was another day of executive orders for President Biden. This time, it was related to health care. One of the main ones he signed was opening -- reopening that enrollment period for those marketplaces for the Affordable Care Act so people can enroll to get health care should they choose to do so. What they'll be doing is opening this enrollment period for about 90 days from February 15th to May 15th. And that allows people to sign up for health care which has been a massive concern because of the pandemic.

And we were told by sources last year that people went to President Trump. They urged him to actually reopen this period, given that people were suffering job losses at a rate that we had not seen in so long and people were now interested in getting health care because, of course, a pandemic was sweeping the nation. President Trump refused to do so. That was a period that only lasted for about six weeks. It ended.

That enrollment period back in December. So, now, this will be reopening. Officials have said part of the challenge is going to be making sure people are aware this is something they can actually do.

So, that's going to be another part of the campaign that you're seeing the White House go after in the next few months until this enrollment is over. A lot of executive orders that we've seen from President Biden during his first few days in office, and, of course, if he wants to do much more on health care, he'll take the legislative route.

But as reporters were leaving the Oval Office, he said the most important thing to him right now is getting passed is that COVID proposal that is not getting bipartisan support. It's getting support from Democrats but the White House is still trying to get Republicans on board, because as President Biden himself has said, he wants this to be a bipartisan bill. Whether or not it will be, still remains to be seen basically.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Kaitlan. Thank you for that.

New insight into the economy's long road to recovery. Last year, the U.S. economy shrank for the first time since the Great Recession, contracting 3.5 percent. The worst since World War II.

The White House called it more evidence more help is needed, in a statement saying the message is clear, that legislation to date has provided an important bridge, we must do more for the economy and for American workers and families, Congress should swiftly pass the president's American Rescue Plan.

Now, for the holiday quarter, the economy did grow. It grew 4 percent the last quarter of the year. Now, in normal times, that would be just fine, but these are not normal times. That summer bounce back, as you can see, that third quarter bounce back has stalled. Now the surging virus is holding back the jobs recovery again. We've been seeing that in first time jobless claims. Another 837,000

people filed for the first time benefits. Joe Biden's first partial week as president. Another 426,000 people filed under the special pandemic programs. Added together, that is another 1.3 million people laid off in just one week. Laura, this crisis is far from over.

JARRETT: That's for sure.

Still ahead, the most outspoken coach in the NBA doing his part to ease skepticism about the coronavirus vaccines.

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[05:23:30]

ROMANS: All right. Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady opening up about his parents' battle with COVID-19.

Andy Scholes has this morning's "Bleacher Report".

It doesn't roll off the tongue, Buccaneers quarterback but I'm getting there.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Get used to it, especially with the Super Bowl a week from Sunday, Christine.

But Tom Brady opening up about his parents' battle with COVID yesterday. You know, he says they're doing well right now and they will be able to be in the stands for the super bowl a week from Sunday.

Brady's dad revealed earlier in the week on ESPN that both he and his wife tested positive for the virus in September. Tom Brady Sr. called it a matter of life and death. Needed to be hospitalized for three weeks.

Brady's mom, who is a cancer survivor, has more mild symptoms and was able to be treated at home by their daughter Marie who is a nurse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY, TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS QUARTERBACK: Certainly the health of my parents is very important, and although I was far away, I had three sisters who were, you know, doing everything they could to help at the time, too. So I'll be very excited to certainly know my parents will be in the stands for the game on Sunday.

They only made it to one game this year. It wasn't a very good outcome. The Saints game at home which was pretty rough for all of us, but I'll have a full contingent, you know, all coming in on I think Saturday afternoon and ready to watch the game and cheer us on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. First head coach Greg Popovich meanwhile doing his part to get fans vaccinated for coronavirus by getting one himself.

[05:25:02]

At age 72, he's the oldest coach in the NBA, one of the first coaches and players to receive the shot in a new public service announcement. The NBA says it won't jump the line for vaccine but Commissioner Adam Silver said they would be open to vaccinate members to encourage participation.

Well, the Miami Heat has a new first line of defense against COVID-19. The team is using dogs trained to sniff out coronavirus to screen guests before they can take their seats.

Here's how it works. The dogs walk past all of the fans when they're entering the arena. If the dog sits, the Heat says it means the virus has been found. That person is not going to be allowed inside. That has been used in airports in Dubai and Helsinki, Finland in recent months. The science isn't yet clear whether dogs can, in fact, detect coronavirus in people.

All right. Amazing news from Washington football team head coach Ron Rivera. He's cancer free holding a sign with his dogs. Rivera announced he had skin cancer last august. Incredibly he didn't miss a single game while undergoing treatment during his first season in Washington.

All right. And, finally, look at these crowds on hand to watch exhibition matches ahead of the Australian Open, 4,000 fans just packed in together, most of them not wearing a mask. It wasn't required. Australia has now had 12 days without a local infection in any of its states or territories.

Players had to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. You know, Laura, both Serena and Naomi Osaka said after their exhibition match it was awesome playing in front of so many fans. Good for Australia that they're able to pull that off hopefully here in the U.S. to get there someday.

JARRETT: Yeah. I mean, just looking at that, it was surreal. It felt like going back in time.

SCHOLES: Back in time.

JARRETT: Right? Andy, nice to see you. Thanks so much.

SCHOLES: All right.

JARRETT: All right. How did a fringe theory take hold in the halls of Congress? Join Anderson Cooper for a look at the origins of a QAnon conspiracy, a CNN special report tomorrow night, at 9:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

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